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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29668098">Callin' 날 불러줘</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/veryterriblewritings/pseuds/veryterriblewritings'>veryterriblewritings</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band), The Gifted (TV 2017), X-Men - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Mutants, F/M, The Gifted AU, X-Men References</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:33:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,569</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29668098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/veryterriblewritings/pseuds/veryterriblewritings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mutants / X-Men / The Gifted AU with Set! To be a hero, A.C.E</p><p>Hiatus.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kang Yuchan | Chan/Original Female Character(s), Kim Byeongkwan/Original Female Character(s), Kim Sehyoon | Wow/Original Female Character(s), Lee Donghun/Original Female Character(s), Park Junhee | Jun/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Warning: Some violence, not really graphic, really cheesy and cringy powers descriptions and use.<br/>As of now, no archive warnings applied yet but as the story progresses, some warning boxes will be checked accordingly. If you feel like I have neglected to tag the warning, please do inform me.<br/>So, proceed with caution.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong> <em>“Mutation: it is the key to our evolution.</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em> It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. </em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>But every few millennia, evolution leaps forward.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>- Professor X (X-Men, 2000)</em>
</p><p>It was truly the worst of times. For the longest time, mutants had been able to hide from the human race. They had managed to create a society, a community of their own, where they learned to love and protect each other, where they learned to control their powers, where they learned how to survive in the human society without being seen as different, or dangerous.</p><p>But, the world had changed, the world had seen and acknowledged the existence of a far superior species known as the mutants. They were feared for their powers, for what they were capable of, for their differences. The human race had identified themselves as the far more disadvantaged opponents, demanded for the change of laws to protect them. And, so they had their ways.</p><p>The government held an intervention, identifying mutation as an epidemic, a disease, a virus that needed to be researched, to be cured, to be wiped out. Billions of national funds were channelled for this very cause, to understand the X-gene, to control the X-gene, to cure the X-gene, to eliminate the X-gene.</p><p>Humans and mutants were equally scared. Humans frightened of being attacks, scared for their less than superior capabilities. Mutants feared of being hunted, being sliced alive, being experimented on.</p><p>It was truly the worst of times. Everyone lived in fear.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>“The motion for establishment of Mutant City is denied.”</p><p>The camera flashes went off everywhere, almost blinding the officials who were sitting on the stage.</p><p>“The government will not legalize nor fund a state in which mutants can gather without proper supervisions. The X-Gene Cure Initiative will be proceeding as it already has for the past 20 years. The mutant facilities, under the jurisdiction of the Sentinel Services, all across the country will be functioning as per usual and will not be abolished. Thank you.”</p><p>Those were the statements that were spoken by the Prime Minister as he stepped down from the podium amidst the ruckus of the eager reporters trying to ask him questions, or demand for clarification of his statements.</p><p>The television was turned off as the sighs of disappointment filled the room.</p><p>“The Prime Minister demands for our disbandment,” the grey-haired man in the blue-black suit informed. “We have to go underground,” he continued as he sat down at the end of the table, indicating his position of the leader of the ground.</p><p>“But Senator, we have built so much for this initiative to work,” the second-in-command, a black-haired woman in her late 40s, spoke.</p><p>“Yes, Dr. Kim. I understand and appreciate what you have done to the organization,” the Senator replied, comforting her disappointment.</p><p>“Senator, we can’t just scrapped the project. We all know what they were really doing in those mutant facilities and the X-Gene Cure labs,” another woman, looked just a little bit older than the other one, spoke.</p><p>“We should scatter our forces. We can’t stay together in one place if we were to survive,” a man in a suit, suggested.</p><p>“That’s why Dr Kim and her team will stay in the capital. I will set up a headquarters up south and each of us should have our own bases,” the Senator laid out his plan.</p><p>“As far as the government and the public concern, we no longer exist but I trust each and every one of you to stay alive.”</p><p>XXXXX</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Someone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mission: Extraction</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There's really no other warning that the use of guns and superpowers.<br/>We're officially started! Happy reading!<br/>Anyway, since this is inspired by and set in The Gifted universe, you might want to check out their youtube channel.<br/>You can start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXYg3BLJIyk</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong><em>그</em></strong> <strong><em>누군가가</em></strong><strong><em>,</em></strong> <strong><em>날</em></strong> <strong><em>찾고</em></strong> <strong><em>있는</em></strong> <strong><em>것</em></strong> <strong><em>같아</em></strong><strong><em>.</em></strong></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>It feels like there’s someone who is looking for me.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>THE SMALL RED LIGHT on the radio device was blinking, indicating an incoming message from their radio frequency. Yuchan wore a puzzled look on his face as he put on his headset and clicked on the keyboard. There was a hesitation pause at the sender’s end as he also noticed some bustling commotion going at the background.</p><p>There was a sound of heavy breathing, followed by a voice, the message:</p><p>“This is Seolhwa. Our identities have been compromised, we’ve blown our covers. We’re escaping the lab but we’re trapped in an abandoned factory, near the lab. We can’t teleport our way out, Woohee has been shot. I need back-up,” said the voice, sounding rushed and panicked, followed by a static sound, marking the end of the message.</p><p>Yuchan immediately ran his fingers across the keyboard as multiple screen monitors in front of him processing the algorithm that he typed in. Both of his eyeballs rapidly moved left and right, analysing every monitor he had in front of him. One of the screen revealed a visual footage of the laboratory that Seolhwa talked about and he scanned the nearby areas for an abandoned factory.</p><p>He stood up from his swivel chair when he found the said factory and ran outside of the control room to find his members. Their leader, Junhee, was just outside, keeping watch near the tower. He saw Yuchan running towards him.</p><p>“Seolhwa sent a message. They’re in trouble. The lab found out about them and Woohee’s been shot,” Yuchan said as soon as he was close enough for Junhee to hear him.</p><p>His information triggered another member of the team, Donghun, who was standing nearby Junhee, as he immediately turned his head to Yuchan. “What?” he asked, looking worried.</p><p>“Get Sehyoon and Byeongkwan to the control room,” Junhee commanded to Donghun as he tapped Yuchan’s shoulder, walking speedily inside, towards the control room. Donghun nodded and moved to find the two names Junhee called out.</p><p>Junhee and Yuchan entered the control room as Yuchan showed him the visual footage of the place Seolhwa was talking about in one of his monitors. He sat on his swivel chair again as he tapped the keyboard to find a layout map of the place. He put on his headset on again.</p><p>“There’s been reports on police radio frequency, looking for those two. They’re calling in back-ups too. The place is going to be filled with cops soon,” he reported as his eyes still locked on the monitors.</p><p>“Then, we have to move fast,” Junhee said as he rummaged through the top drawer for some earpieces.</p><p>Donghun entered the control room with two other guys, Sehyoon and Byeongkwan, and Junhee immediately handed out the earpieces to each of them while putting one in his right ear. It appeared that the two were ready for a rescue mission, probably have been briefed about it by Donghun on their way to the control earlier.</p><p>“I need you to keep us updated on the incoming cops,” Junhee commanded to Yuchan as he nodded. “You three are coming with me. We’re going to get Seolhwa and Woohee out of the factory safely,” he said as he turned to the three guys in front of him.</p><p>The blond man, went by the name of Sehyoon, nodded as he said, “Woohee’s been shot, so get Joeun stand-by for medical assistance as soon as we get back here,” and Yuchan nodded as he stood from his chair and dashed out of the room.</p><p>“Activate your earpiece and let’s get going,” Junhee said as he walked out of the room, as the other three followed suit.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>THE POLICE CARS parked outside of the abandoned factory. Woohee was lying on the dusty floor, trying her best to stay conscious, although she kept whimpering in pain. Seolhwa anxiously looking out through the cracks of the window in front of her as she repeatedly looked over to Woohee with evident worries in her face. She touched the wall in front of her and closed her eyes, finding calm in her mind, trying to focus. The walls and windows started to turn white as snow as the concrete became frozen solid as cold white smoke-like mists escaped her palms.</p><p>The cops outside shouted through their megaphone, asking them to surrender or else the shooting would start. They were aware of the walls had become frozen solid. They instantly knew about the barricade that the mutants inside the factory had created.</p><p>Seolhwa could hear the command of the police force outside, muffled through the walls she had frozen to protect them. The cops outside were in position, with their guns and rifles at the ready, to fire.</p><p>Suddenly, she could hear the sound of fire, not of the guns and rifles, but actual fire burning, causing the cops to cause a commotion. The strong fire had caused her frozen walls to melt. She anxiously looked over to Woohee again, both of them wearing frightened and panicked looks on their faces.</p><p>The doors were kicked open as she stood up, scared. Without thinking, she raised up her hands, which were covered by cold white mists, to create a few dangerously sharp ice blocks, throwing those towards the kicked doors as she turned her head back.</p><p>“Hey, it’s us,” a familiar voice spoke as she turned her head, finding her ice blocks were melted by fireballs. She dropped her knees to the floor, relieved as she saw the two men walking towards her.</p><p>“I’ll get Woohee,” Byeongkwan said as he ran towards Woohee who was curling up on the floor, with her left hand pressing on her stomach.         </p><p>“Are you okay?” Donghun asked as he pulled Seolhwa back up, to stand on her feet. He placed his hands on her shoulders, worriedly looking down to her face.</p><p>“Yeah,” she nodded, as she sighed in relief. Probably the most relieved she felt in months.</p><p>“We’ll get you out of here. Come on,” Donghun convinced her, smiling as he pulled her hand and start walking out.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>THE COPS were busy trying to avoid the line of burning fire that abruptly appeared out of nowhere in front of the factory. They saw an SVU as they turned to their side, and they saw four men inside of the car. Three of them got off the SVU, with the two of them, running to enter the factory. One of the two running men were shooting fireballs out of his bare hands towards the frozen door, melting it down.</p><p>“More mutants at the scene. We need back-up!” one of the cops yelled onto his radio as he received muffled, static sounds on the other side.</p><p>The SVU took off, leaving a man who got off earlier, and he stood alone. The black-haired man raised his hands up, as if he was performing some sort of rituals and the police cars started to shake. The guns and rifles that were on their hands, in position to start shooting, suddenly flew out of their hands, taking the cops by surprise. And then, before they could process and react to the flying weapons that had touched the ground, they felt a strong gust of wind, sweeping them off their feet and they fell hard onto the ground. The black-haired man ran off towards the factory door as the cops struggled to get back on their feet.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>DONGHUN AND BYEONGKWAN walked out of the factory door that they kicked down earlier on, as they were respectively aiding Seolhwa and Woohee to escape. Junhee ran towards them, signalling them to run to the other side of the factory, where Sehyoon was waiting in the SUV, keeping the engine hot.</p><p><em>“Please, save me,”</em> a voice echoed in his head, followed by a sharp and loud ringing sound that sent chills to his body. Junhee cupped his ears as he stopped walking and began to fall on his knees as he whimpered in pain.</p><p>“Donghun, wait,” Seolhwa called out as she turned her head, noticing how Junhee did not keep up behind them. “Junhee!” she yelled as she pointed to Junhee’s direction, making Donghun instantly snapped his head back to look at that same direction. Her yell made Byeongkwan, who had Woohee leaning on his shoulder, turned around too.</p><p>“Get to the SUV first,” Donghun commanded to Byeongkwan who understood as he looked at Woohee who was pressing her hand tightly on the bleeding wounds on her stomach. He nodded and hurriedly moved to the intended location.</p><p>“You, too,” Donghun said to Seolhwa as he saw that the police started to organize their formation to attack again.</p><p>“No, you’re gonna want me to stay,” she replied as she pointed to the water tank, located just above the building next to the abandoned factory.</p><p>The sirens went off from more police cars that were just arriving at the scene. The attacked cops from earlier picked up their weapons again, guns and rifles at the ready. One of the cops shouted through the megaphone, demanding their surrender. Amidst that, Junhee was still kneeling on the ground, looking like he had a painful attack to his brain, as he cupped his ears.</p><p>Donghun lifted his hands, turning his gaze and sole focus on the water tank as it rocked back and forth, before the polyethylene material of the tank busted open and the water inside rushed over between Junhee and the cops, making some type of water barrier. Donghun maintained his hands movement to control the water as he and Seolhwa walked closer where Junhee was.</p><p>“Fire!”</p><p>They heard the command from the other side of the water barrier as Seolhwa ran closer to the barrier and touched the water with her misty palms, closing her eyes and breathing heavily. The water froze and became a real solid barricade, blocking the bullets of guns and rifles from shooting to their side.</p><p>Donghun broke his focus and hurriedly helped Junhee, lifting Junhee’s left arm and put it around his own neck. Donghun put his arm around Junhee’s waist, supporting his weight.</p><p>“Man, we got to go,” Donghun said as he signalled to Seolhwa, who turned from the ice barricade towards them, signalling her to get moving.</p><p>“No,” Junhee weakly whispered. “She needs me,” he continued as he whimpered again, holding his head.</p><p>“Who’s she?” Donghun asked and at that moment, an explosion blew the barricade, turning it into ice pieces on the ground.</p><p>XXXXX</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As per usual, comments and feedback will be much much appreciated and loved by yours truly. Thanks!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Somewhere</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>You gain some, you lose some.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings: some non-graphic fight scene and car chase scene from the police, some medical stuff that is most likely inaccurate.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong><em>자꾸</em></strong> <strong><em>만</em></strong> <strong><em>어디선가</em></strong><strong><em>,</em></strong> <strong><em>애타는</em></strong> <strong><em>소리들이</em></strong> <strong><em>들려</em></strong><strong><em>와</em></strong><strong><em>.</em></strong></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>I keep hearing tantalizing sounds from somewhere.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>SEHYOON felt the agitation as he put the car in parked gear. He was left alone to wait at the agreed rendezvous point, as he was their getaway guy. However, just minutes after, Byeongkwan emerged, with Woohee leaned on his shoulder, as they walked rather speedily, towards them. Sehyoon got out of the driver’s seat and opened the back side door of the SUV and ran to the both of them. He took Woohee over from Byeongkwan, crouching down as one of his arms found its way under her knees, picking her off the ground and the other arm was supporting her back.</p><p>“Where are the others?” he asked as he put Woohee on the back seat on the SUV, and pulling the door shut as she settled on the seat, still breathing heavily from the wound in her stomach.</p><p>“They’re in trouble. Something’s happening to Junhee. I don’t know what,” Byeongkwan speedily reported as he climbed onto the passenger’s seat and Sehyoon entered the car again, getting ready to drive away.</p><p>“Then, we’d have to go back to the front,” Sehyoon said, slightly conveying his frustration.</p><p>“And we’ve got hurry back. She’s losing a lot of blood,” Byeongkwan reminded him, looking over to Woohee, who was sitting on the back seat.</p><p>Sehyoon just shook in head, frustrated. He stepped on the gas pedal, reversing the car and then accelerating forward, to get back to the front side of the factory.</p><p>Byeongkwan and Sehyoon heard an explosion as they moved forward. Sehyoon hit the brake pedal suddenly stopping the car, wearing a shocked expression on his face as he exchanged looks with Byeongkwan. There were chunks of ice scattered on the ground.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>THE EXPLOSIVES were thrown by the police force to destroy the ice barricade, causing a single loud explosion sound and the frozen barricade cracked, soon after it became chunks of huge ice blocks. One of the ice chunks hit Seolhwa, causing her to fall to the ground.</p><p>The cops got into the attacking positions, weapons at the ready. Seolhwa tried to get up as she realized that they were about to be shot at. She turned to Donghun and Junhee, who were also kneeling on the ground, following the impact of the explosives. As she stood up, getting on her feet, she started to shoot sharp ice chunks from her left and right hands, simultaneously, towards the cops.</p><p>“Move!” she shouted, turning her head slightly towards Donghun and Junhee. “Get to the car!” she shouted again, as she marched forward towards the cops, trying to block the every bullet she could with her ice blocks.</p><p>The sounds of bullets leaving the barrels of the weapons made it felt like those bullets rained down upon them. Donghun reluctantly ran, as he dragged along Junhee, who seemed to be losing his mind at the painful attacks to his brain. He looked back at Seolhwa, who was struggling to fight, her hands messily produced chunks and chunks of ice, attacking the cops.</p><p>He paced forward as the SUV rushed over to them and abruptly stopped. Byeongkwan got off the car to pull the back door open. Donghun and Byeongkwan helped Junhee to get in the SUV.</p><p>Seolhwa was still resiliently fighting the cops, blocking the bullets at the front line. Donghun called out her name, wanting her to rush over to the SUV, so that they could get out of there. However, as she was looking back, she lost her focus and fighting reflex, and took a bullet on her leg, and as a consequence, she fell down hard to the ground.</p><p>“No!” Donghun yelled, with an evident hint of agony in his tone.</p><p>The cops marched forward, closer to Seolhwa, as she lay helplessly on the ground. They continued to relentlessly aim fires at the SUV, hitting random spots of the car. Sehyoon hit the gas pedal and accelerated forward. Some of the police cars started to move, chasing after them as well.</p><p>Donghun looked out the window as he saw Seolhwa’s body being picked up from the ground, dragged by the cops.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>SHAKING THE POLICE CARS off their tail was not exactly a hard task to do. Donghun had managed to summon the water from the underground sewage system to flood the road behind them as Byeongkwan helped by shooting fireballs out from his palms towards the cops.</p><p>By the time they arrived at the base, Woohee was completely losing her consciousness. Thus, they hurriedly brought her over as Joeun, the healer, waited inside the sickbay, ready with the required equipment. She was tending to Woohee’s wound, focusing on using her powers to regenerate cells to close the wound.</p><p>Then, Junhee was brought in, he whimpered in pain and breathed rapidly and heavily as he was still feeling the loud ringing in his ears and a woman’s voice, pleading voice, haunting his brain, echoing, like a broken record.</p><p>“What happened to him?” Joeun asked, as she saw them, putting him on a bed beside Woohee’s. She turned around to check on him.</p><p>“We don’t really know,” Byeongkwan replied. “He just sort of fell down to his knees and acted like his brain is being poked, or something,” he reported what he witnessed earlier.</p><p>“Was there a telepath?” Joeun interrogated as she studied his symptoms.</p><p>“We’re not really sure. Other than him being severely affected like this, the rest of us didn’t really feel anything,” Sehyoon said as he crossed his arms.</p><p>“Well, I need to keep working on Woohee,” Joeun said, she turned her back to Junhee. “I’ve closed her wounds but she lost quite a lot of blood,” she informed, continuing her work on Woohee. “There’s a dose of sedatives over there,” she said as she pointed to her left, where a medical supplies cabinet was located.</p><p>Byeongkwan proceeded to the said cabinet and helped to calm Junhee down by sedating him, causing him to gradually normalize his breathing pattern as he fell asleep.</p><p>As they were watching Joeun fixing up Woohee, Donghun suddenly busted the door open and pushed Sehyoon and pinned him to the wall by grabbing the collar of his shirt.</p><p>“You left her behind,” he grunted, while one hand pinned Sehyoon to the wall, the other hand was clenched into a fist.</p><p>“It was never my intention,” Sehyoon denied as he glared sharply into Donghun’s eyes. “I had to make a call. Junhee wasn’t sane, Woohee’s losing blood, and in case you didn’t notice, we were shot at,” he said, defending himself and his decision.</p><p>“Hey, cut it out,” Joeun hissed. “I’m trying to save lives here,” she frowned and stood up, confronting them. “If you’re going to fight, don’t do it in my area. Get the hell out,” she told them off.</p><p>Byeongkwan walked over closer to the two of them and tried to loosen the grip of Donghun’s hand on Sehyoon’s shirt collar. The two men were still glaring into each other’s eyes as Donghun were pulled away by Byeongkwan. He angrily stomped off the room. Joeun’s eyes trailed over his movement as Byeongkwan followed him out of the room. She turned her gaze towards Sehyoon, giving him a look, as if telling him to get out too. She, then, proceeded to continue her paused work.</p><p>“I’m staying here,” Sehyoon said as he walked over to take a seat beside Woohee’s bed.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>THE ONCE LOUD RINGING in his ears turned into muffled background noise, as if he was walking away from the source of the sound. The pleading, echoing voice of a woman that stuck in his head turned into a whisper, getting softer and softer until it disappeared into nothingness. The intense feeling in his chest faded into calmness. His clenched fists eased up. The frown he wore in his face relaxed. His eyes were closed. The beads of cold sweat on his forehead dried up. He slept.</p><p>Suddenly, his consciousness was brought upon to a room, the wall was greyish and seemed very uncared for. His eyes darted everywhere, something felt off, as if he wasn’t looking through his own eyes, as if his eyeballs weren’t really his. He scanned the room. It seemed more like a prison cell than a room. But he didn’t feel like it was unfamiliar. He felt like he lived his life there, although nothing really spelt home, not even the bed he was sitting on. His right hand moved, touching his left arm, specifically touching some kind of a needle poke scar. The arm felt frailer that he remembered, the bones felt smaller, even the fingers felt shorter.</p><p>The cell door swung open but it didn’t make him turn around, as if he was already expecting the company. A pair of hands pulled him up from the bed, dragging him out of the cell. He felt smaller, tinier than he remembered. He was walking, no, more like dragged, through a white hallway, passing doors after doors. He wanted to fight, the feet hurt when they were dragged like that. He wanted to say something. He couldn’t. It seemed as if he had no control over the body nor the behaviour. <em>No, this doesn’t feel like myself,</em> he thought. <em>It’s a dream, </em>he convinced himself, although it seriously felt very much real.</p><p>They stopped dragging him as the journey stopped at a white door. It was opened by one of the men in the white coat, who brought him there. When he entered the room, he figured it was a laboratory. He heard screams. <em>Experiments,</em> he thought. A patient or a prisoner or a mutant, he wasn’t so sure, a woman was dragged out of the laboratory by another set of two men in white coats. He stared at her face. <em>Seolhwa,</em> he figured, he recognized her but he couldn’t call out her name. He blinked and it went black.</p><p>When he tried to shoot his eyes open again, it felt like his body snapped back into reality. But it didn’t feel like the scene he just witnessed were not. He was convinced that it was real. He felt that it was real. Sweats dripped from his forehead and as he wiped his face, everything felt normal again. His eyeballs, his arms, his fingers, his legs felt familiar again, as if everything restored to its original size. He didn’t feel small or tiny anymore. He felt like himself.</p><p>XXXXX</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Excitement</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>She's not alone.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong><em>좀</em></strong> <strong><em>이상해</em></strong> <strong><em>몸이</em></strong> <strong><em>두근대</em></strong><strong><em>. </em></strong><strong><em>지금껏</em></strong> <strong><em>느껴보지</em></strong> <strong><em>못했던</em></strong> <strong><em>설레임인걸</em></strong><strong><em>까</em></strong><strong><em>?</em></strong></p><p>
  <strong> <em>Strangely, my body is pounding. Is this an excitement that I have never felt before?</em> </strong>
</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>YUCHAN was tapping on the keyboard furiously as one of the monitors in front of him kept showing error messages. It was in the middle of the night, but he couldn’t sleep, not when he couldn’t crack the hard drive that Woohee brought in from the mission. It has been a full day since he started to work on the pretty severely damaged hard drive. Yeah, it wasn’t just the security firewall that encrypted the files inside that he had to pass through, it was also the fact that there was a bullet hole that pretty much had fried the hard drive physically.</p><p>He pushed the keyboard away, disappointed. He leaned back on his swivel chair, rubbing his face, letting out a loud sigh.</p><p>“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Junhee asked, leaning against the door.</p><p>“I can’t sleep,” Yuchan replied, without even looking up to Junhee, as he began to dismantle the hard drive, taking parts inside it, trying to find another angle in cracking the task.</p><p>Junhee pulled out another chair from under the table beside him and took a seat. His eyes wandered to the multiple monitors that were glued on the wall in front of Yuchan, looking over security footages from multiple security cameras around the base and also a single monitor that showed news reports from local news channel.</p><p>“Did you find anything on Seolhwa? On the news?” he asked. Usually, when there’s a mutant attack like yesterday, the news would be covering it intensively, to fuel the hate, to show how important anti-mutant laws are.</p><p>“Nothing,” Yuchan answered as his hands stopped working. “You know, it’s almost as if they’re acting like they didn’t captured anyone,” he continued, looking at Junhee with a curious look on his face. “I’ve scoured the police department database, even the Sentinel Services, but it’s like there’s no trace of her being held anywhere in the mutant facilities.”</p><p>“That’s weird,” he mumbled. “Do you think they take her back to the lab at Trask?” he asked.</p><p>“It could be,” Yuchan speculated, furrowing his eyebrows. “I still think we should go back to the lab so that I can tap into their database. I can’t get anything out of this burnt hard drive,” he sighed.</p><p>Junhee bit his upper lip, images from his dreams flashed before his eyes. That was the reason he couldn’t fall asleep. Every attempt he made to close his eyes had brought his consciousness back to the cell, the lab again and again.</p><p>“When is Dr. Kim gonna come in?” Junhee asked.</p><p>“Mission report meeting, first thing tomorrow morning. She’s probably already on her way here,” Yuchan replied.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>DR. KIM walked through the door as the mutants who were rounding the table greeted her. She took a seat at the far end of the table, a place clearly reserved for her.</p><p>“Woohee, mission report, please,” she demanded, turning her gaze to the girl, who sat a few chairs away from her left. She pressed the record button on her device.</p><p>“Yes, Dr. Kim,” Woohee nodded. “The infiltration mission at the Trask Industries laboratory ended two days ago. After three months, our identities were compromised, although the cause of the compromise are unknown. We were attacked at the lab and I was shot at. I managed to make a portal out to an abandoned factory nearby. Seolhwa called for back-up. An extraction team from the Underground, Junhee, Donghun, Sehyoon and Byeongkwan got me out of there. But, unfortunately, Seolhwa didn’t make it out,” she reported, maintaining a professional tone in her voice. “And I managed to steal a hard drive of experiment record files from the lab.”</p><p>“You’ve done a great job,” Dr. Kim comforted her. “Any information from the hard drive?” she asked, as she turned to eye Yuchan, who looked like he was in despair.</p><p>“The hard drive has a bullet hole in it. It’s severely damaged. I couldn’t retrieve any information from it,” Yuchan informed, letting out a disappointed sigh.</p><p>“So, the mission tanked and we lost a member,” Donghun summarized as he clicked his tongue.</p><p>“Yes, Donghun, I’m well aware,” Dr. Kim calmly said, also sighing. “But, we found out about their progress on the X-cure and the whole experiments they are doing on mutants. The mission didn’t exactly tanked,” she reminded Donghun, reminded them all actually. The last thing she would want happening was the team losing their motivation and faith in the cause, in the Resistance. “Do we know where they’re holding Seolhwa?” she asked, once again, turning to Yuchan.</p><p>“No, there’s no trace of her in the police department, not even Sentinel Services,” he answered, sucking his teeth, feeling like the whole room was looking at him in disappointment. Junhee patted him on his back, giving a thin smile, comforting.</p><p>“Actually, I believe she might be taken back to the lab,” Junhee speculated, and again, the images from his dreams rushed over to him again. “I just have a feeling,” he continued as they were all looking at him, with questioning look.</p><p>“Great, to be experimented on,” Donghun said, mockingly, only to clear his throat as he saw the way they were looking at them.</p><p>“What makes you think that?” Dr. Kim said, furrowing her eyebrows, curiously turning to face Junhee. He was never one to say things he wasn’t sure of, and wasn’t one to depend on feelings either. Every decision he made usually were very well-calculated with logic and reasoning, the whole reason why he was elected as the leader of the Underground.</p><p>“I mean, she’s not mentioned anywhere, not in the news, not in the police database. There isn’t word on prosecution or trial or prison. Where else could she be?” Junhee explained, he looked around the room, scanning people’s reactions. He was sure that it wasn’t a good idea to bring up how he got the idea from his dreams.</p><p>“So, you’re saying we should break in the lab,” Sehyoon finally spoke, deducing from the Junhee’s explanation.</p><p>“It’s not a bad idea to go there,” Yuchan slowly agreed. “If I can get in, I can hack into their database, get the information that I couldn’t get from the hard drive. Maybe even info on their entire operations,” Yuchan reasoned, carefully wording his words.</p><p>“They have tight, high-level security. They just found out about two mutants infiltrating their facility just two days ago. The security must have doubled since then,” Woohee pointed out. “It’s a suicide mission,” she continued, murmuring.</p><p>“Yeah, but you’ve been inside the building, you’ve seen it. You can easily portal us in, and portal us out,” Yuchan suggested, looking over to Woohee. “We have you. We have high percentage of success rate.”</p><p>“It’s still a big risk,” Woohee mumbled, shaking her head. “We don’t even know if Seolhwa is there for sure,” she said, turning her gaze to Junhee.</p><p>“I say we should try,” Donghun spoke, keeping a level head. He knew he had been sensitive over this matter since they got back from last mission. “We should just check if Seolhwa is there. Even if she’s not, Yuchan can get into their database. That’s still a plus for us. And if she’s not there, we can cross the place off of our list and start finding her somewhere else. It’s better than not knowing at all,” he continued, reasoning. That was the best way to convince everyone anyway.</p><p>“Then, it’s decided,” Dr. Kim said as she started to revise the plans for the mission.</p><p>XXXXX</p><p>WHEN SHE was first brought into the cell, she would scream for help until she passed out from the exhaustion. She would wake up and start screaming again, and again, and again. But, as days became years, she stopped. The pain from the needles poking through her veins day by day were excruciating enough to put her to sleep, without having any more energy to fight or scream for help. She had been in here for years, though she couldn’t remember how long exactly, it was hard to keep up with the days count when she could hardly tell if it was day or night. The idea of sunrise and sunset was becoming foreign to her as the time flew by.</p><p>She used to believe that her father would come and rescue her from this cage. Or at least, she would be reunited with her sisters again. When she was first captured by Trask Industries, they took all three of them, she and her sisters. She couldn’t see her father anywhere then but she believed they took him too. To be honest, that was what kept her alive all those years. The hope of a family reunion. That one day, instead of a dusty grey-walled cell, she would wake up in her mansion again. But that hope turned into dream, turned into a wishful thinking. These days, this dusty grey-walled felt more familiar to her.</p><p>But, for the first time in forever, she suddenly felt a glimmer of hope. She hadn’t felt the spark of her powers in years. Not since that last laboratory incident when they forced her and her sisters to combine their hive mind powers and amplified their telepathic powers using drugs. She didn’t remember much from that day, other than being exhausted from the excessive use of her powers and strong connections with her sisters that died down abruptly as they passed out. She tried to use it again after the incident, when they sent her into the cell for solitary confinement. But she could never reach them again, as if her powers were paralyzed and after years of trying, she gave up, accepting that she probably had lost her powers. Which also made her think that maybe she couldn’t reach any of her sisters because they were… dead.</p><p>So, when she felt that spark of power in her mind, when she suddenly could reach another person’s mind, she immediately thought of her sisters. Maybe after all, they were alive and were trying to reach her. She felt the motivation that she hadn’t felt in a while, a will to live, a will survive. Her body pounded, she felt a rush of emotions for the first time in forever.</p><p>“Please, save me,” she whispered, pleading as she could feel that someone was listening. She kept her focus, trying to remember her training, to not be so excited at the opportunity to escape, to ignore the fear, to not be ignited by anger, to focus on serenity. She repeated that sentence again and again, only to receive a sharp, loud ringing in her head. She fell on the floor, holding her head, as she kept repeating and pleading, hoping to receive a reply. Something other than the sharp and ringing sound that felt like a torture to her brain. But she had received enough amount of torture to be resilient, not breaking focus, until she finally gave in to the excruciating pain in her head. She lay down on her bed to rest, only to find the door of her cell to be swung open just minutes after. Which made her realized, the pain was about to start again, as a pair of hands dragged her out of the cell.</p><p>Strangely, at that moment, for the first time in a very long time, she didn’t feel alone.</p><p>XXXXX</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm thinking of putting this on hold like on a hiatus simply because i don't think i have the actual motivation to write because i don't feel excited about this at this point due to the lack of feedback i've got but i will upload what i've got done so far. but i will pick this back up eventually. i think.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Anxiety and Fear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Back to the place you don't want to be in</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Not much warning here, just the cheesy villain speech for a little bit.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong><em>왜</em></strong> <strong><em>갑자기</em></strong> <strong><em>맘이</em></strong> <strong><em>아픈데</em></strong><strong><em>? </em></strong><strong><em>매</em></strong> <strong><em>순간</em></strong> <strong><em>불안과</em></strong> <strong><em>공포감에</em></strong> <strong><em>휩싸였던</em></strong> <strong><em>나</em></strong><strong><em>.</em></strong></p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <em>Why does suddenly my heart ache? Every moment, I feel trapped in anxiety and fear.</em>
  </strong>
</p>
<p>XXXXX</p>
<p>USING BOTH OF HER HANDS, Woohee opened a portal leading to a hidden passage near the main security control room of Trask Industries building. She herself entered the portal, holding it open for Yuchan to enter before making the purplish portal on the wall vanished. She led the way for Yuchan, showing him the only door to enter the security control room and the door was, of course, secured with a bunch of protocols. Handprints, access ID card verification and a pin code keypad. Having the power of handling electronics with his fast processing brain, hacking a door wasn’t exactly rocket science for Yuchan. He reached into his backpack, taking out a single screw driver as he skilfully dismantled the security pad beside the door and disabled it in less than 10 seconds.</p>
<p>The both of them entered the room, greeted by two shocked security officers who were soon unconsciously laying on the floor after they skilfully knocked them out.</p>
<p>Yuchan took a seat in the swivel chair there and began tapping away the keyboard, entering a bunch of coding instructions.</p>
<p>“You’re good here, right?” Woohee asked as she tied both of the knocked out security officers with cable ties, taking their pistols and their access ID cards.</p>
<p>“Yeah, totally,” he answered and she opened a portal back to the outside of the building, where the rest of the team were standing by for the next phase.</p>
<p>They were cautiously waiting outside for Woohee to return to make way for them to enter the building and she came back.</p>
<p>“I got two access cards. But these are of the security guards, they don’t have access to the lab, only the prison cells,” Woohee briefed as she handed the cards to Junhee.</p>
<p>“Then, Seolhwa better be in one of those cells,” Donghun murmured as he took one of the cards from Junhee’s hands.</p>
<p>“Hey, I need you to be careful and discrete inside there,” Junhee said to Donghun. “All of you too,” he continued, looking at all of them, Sehyoon, Byeongkwan and Woohee included, as they all nodded.</p>
<p><em>“Guys, security cameras are clear. You can come in now,</em>” Yuchan’s voice was clearly heard through their earpieces and Junhee gestured to Woohee to generate a portal.</p>
<p>Woohee once again held a portal open using both of her hands, allowing all of them to enter the building. This time, the portal led to a poorly lit basement prison cells of the mutant wing of Trask Industries building. All of them were alert of their surroundings but Junhee was even more so. That basement was not foreign to his eyes. This was the very same basement that he saw in his dreams for the past couple of days. Everything around him screamed familiarity. Whoever he was in his dream, they were held hostage here, in this very place. So, it was all real. The dreams, the woman’s whispers, the screams, the experiments and the pain.</p>
<p>“Yuchan, which cell? Give us a number,” Donghun commanded, pressing his left ear, as he examined the location, there were doors after doors.</p>
<p><em>“Wait, initiating,”</em> Yuchan said, dragging his voice. <em>“Cell X-41, third door to your left,”</em> he continued after getting the information.</p>
<p>Donghun walked as he searched for the cell number on the doors. The others were staying alert, keeping watch in case they were interrupted by any of the Trask staff. As he found the door with the exact number that Yuchan told him earlier. He swiped the access ID card on his hand and the door unlocked.</p>
<p>Donghun entered the room carefully. He saw a familiar figure lying down on the bed, facing the wall. He approached and slowly tapped her shoulder.</p>
<p>“No, not again, please,” she whimpered, whispering, words were barely caught by his ears.</p>
<p>“No, Seolhwa. Hey, hey, it’s me,” he said, convincing her as she opened her eyes.</p>
<p>“Donghun,” she whispered, cold smoke escaped her mouth.</p>
<p>“Yes, I got you. Let’s go,” he said softly as he helped her to stand on her feet. Her body was cold, ice cold. Her fingers were almost frozen. She looked weak.</p>
<p>He took her out of the cell to get to the others who were waiting outside. Suddenly, the alarm went off, blaring loudly. The siren-like bells at the top of the wall at every corner of the basement prison cell hallways lighted up in red.</p>
<p><em>“You have to get out of here, right now!”</em> Yuchan said, his voice sounds rushed and panicked. <em>“They found me, get out!”</em> he ordered again.</p>
<p>Junhee could see the security guards running towards them. He instantaneously yelled at the others to gather at one place to get out of there. The sound of guns firing was getting closer and closer.  Woohee hurriedly blasted a portal on a wall, stepping out of the place as she held the portal open, waiting for every one of them to pass through.</p>
<p>“I have to go back for Yuchan,” Woohee said, worriedly, as she closed the portal after all of them passed through.</p>
<p><em>“No, you have to go now. They’re securing the perimeter. Get the hell out of the area, right now,”</em> Yuchan commanded, rushed as he breathed heavily, he was probably fighting off some guards.</p>
<p>“No, we have to get you out,” Junhee insisted but there was no reply from Yuchan on the other side. There were only short breathing sound, the sound of fired bullet and a static sound, indicating the connection had lost.</p>
<p>XXXXX</p>
<p>YUCHAN opened his eyes and found himself cuffed inside a prison cell. He moved and he felt a piercing pain shooting up his left shoulder. Since the last thing he remembered was being shoved into the ground and some shots were fired, he guessed his left shoulder was shot. He tried to sit up from the bed he was on. But that proved to be hard to do. He took a deep and heavy breath as he leaned on the dusted grey wall of the cell.</p>
<p>Suddenly the heavy door of the prison cell moved and revealed two guards in their security uniforms. A man in a clean double-breasted suit, much contrasting the dingy vibe in this prison cell.</p>
<p>Yuchan avoided eye contact with said man.</p>
<p>The man smirked and let out an airy chuckle, almost mockingly. “Kang Yuchan, the prince of Jeju Island,” he said, although his tone made it sound like an announcement.</p>
<p>“I can’t believe I landed such a big fish in my little aquarium tank,” he continues, as if he was doing a monologue by himself. “Should I call Senator Kang? I believe he’d pay a large sum to this lab if I offer him your freedom,” he offered.</p>
<p>Yuchan glared at the man’s direction, his eyes filled with spite and hatred. He echoed the man’s smirk on his own face.</p>
<p>“You don’t even know where my father is,” he mocked. “And even if you do, he wouldn’t care to work with you for my freedom,” he continued, as if he was threatening.</p>
<p>“Ah, right,” the man clicks his tongue and nodded a bunch of times. “You’re playing with the underground now, is that correct?”</p>
<p>Yuchan’s body language became tense when he mentioned the underground. He wasn’t supposed to know.</p>
<p>“Kang Yuchan, can you clarify something with me?” the man looked down and tapped his shoes on the dingy concrete floor. “Your parents have more than enough money to live in this world as the untouchables. And yet here you are, seeking salvation from the outlaws instead.”</p>
<p>He walked closer to the bed where Yuchan was struggling to sit up on due to his injury. “You turned your government-serving, public faces family into fugitives, hiding in the shadows, because of your silly little work on the Empower Academy. Do you really think that hacking the academy and releasing those secrets online would make people sympathised with the mutants?”</p>
<p>Yuchan was breathing heavily as he couldn’t control his anger. The man walked closer and closer.</p>
<p>“Are you really that naïve?” he asked as he bent to look at Yuchan, face to face, with that disgusting smirk on his face.</p>
<p>Yuchan couldn’t take it any longer, so he knocked his head as hard as he could to the man’s forehead. He groaned in pain as the two security guards came to his aid. He stood properly as he lifted his finger to inspect the blood on his forehead.</p>
<p>“Dangerous,” he said as he walked towards the door. “Put him on shackles,” he ordered and the guards immediately compiled. Yuchan struggled to get away. “And just for that, I will make sure that the experiments on you will be done very soon and very painful.”</p>
<p>With that he exited the room and soon after Yuchan was chained onto his bed, his hands and legs being put in the shackles, the guards left. The door closed with a loud sound. So he was left alone in the prison cell, this time accompanied by fear and anxiety.</p>
<p>XXXXX</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Just like I said in the previous chapter, I won't be updating regularly anymore, because reasons.<br/>Thank you for reading! (pls leave some feedback, i live off validations &gt;.&lt;)</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don't have a coherent and solid summary yet.<br/>Mainly because this is unfinished. Like you gotta write the whole thesis to be able to form the abstract, right?<br/>Anyway, let's just see where this takes us.<br/>As usual, feedback and comments are highly appreciated.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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